Tyler in Paraguay

Unfortunately, unlike the rest of my blogs, I have no new adventures to share. Within the past 2 and a half weeks I have not traveled to a different city to see host relatives or giant dams, went to a birthday party or holiday celebration, not even do I have new photos to share with you (that is more likely because my camera broke a few months ago and none of my fellow group members have taken photos of me that I could kindly rob). It is true that the majority of our group did go to a church camp for a day and a half, I watched the Cardinals and Roger Federer lose in the same night and the Swiss Family Portmann has been over for just about a week now, but I would rather use this blog to let you in on a quick glance of what a typical week looks like for me; my classes, responsibilities, free time, family time, what I do, who I talk to etc.

From the way I see it, my week starts on Monday because this is when the weekend stops and I kick myself back into gear. I usually wake up between 7 and 8 am to have a light breakfast with whoever stumbles into the kitchen at the same time I do. This usually consists of a few pieces of bread with some sort of jelly, a piece of fruit and a hot drink called cocido which is semi-similar to coffee. I spend most of my morning planning for my classes and by 11:30 I sit outside under the porch drinking terere with my host mom and sisters while letting the food cook. When 12:00 rolls around we find ourselves a little ‘apurados’ or hurried to set the table and finish preparing lunch for the rest of the family. Lunch is the important meal here where the entire family shows up and eats big, as apposed to dinner in my home. Proceeding lunch my host father leaves for his work again and I help wash and put away the dishes which is immediately followed by the siesta. Siesta is a relaxing time of the day where the people… well I’m really not sure what the people do because I’m always napping. I wake up sometime around 3 to either work on the internet or continue preparing for my classes.

I teach class everyday of the week and most of my classes are at night. Below I've posted my schedule.

Now in comparison to a full time teaching job at a local highschool or middleschool, this may look like a piece of my host mother’s torta but considering that I haven’t had any substantial teaching training and there is no set curriculum, I find most of my time during the weekdays (and a little bit on the weekends) being used to come up with teaching material and lesson plans.

Weekends are another world which usually end up sticking in my head as vague memories of one big hang-out-and-drink-terere session. Saturdays, if I don’t go somewhere, are pretty chill in the mornings. I usually use this time to read, hang out or complete leftover tasks from the week. Also, Saturdays are cleaning days for the Molinas so I generally find myself sweeping or mopping some part of the house. We eat and have an even more relaxed siesta until about 5 when young adults from every corner of the neighborhood start congregating at our house awaiting the Saturday night young adults service which consists of about an hour or so of worship and a lesson followed by soccer and terere on the churches two mini-soccer fields. Sundays seem so much like the previous night that sometimes I feel like all I did was doze off a little during our Saturday night service and woke up to find that the party was still going. We have a 9:00 church service which is followed up by lunch, siesta and another ‘terere/soccer’ meeting at night with the young adults.

I hope you enjoyed this recap of my life here in Paraguay and we'll see you again in two weeks!

Sin Titulo

The last moment we shared together I was retelling my Paraguayan Christmas which happens to be an excellent starting point since the New Years festivities, from my experience, are very similar. New Years Eve day about 15 young from the church and neighborhood congregated at the Molina's household. We talked, made food, ate and lit fireworks at midnight similar to Christmas except this time I was more experienced with native explosives. After 2009 arrived we past the night away chatting, munching on the leftovers and watching movies until daybreak making New Years Day more like a lazy day at the beach.

While we are on the topic of beaches, I was able to dawn, for the first time in Paraguay, my swimming suit on the sand swept coast of the Rio Paraguay just a few hours from my house in Formosa, Argentina. Dorothea, René (the son of one of the Pastors of our church) and I headed there so that we could renew our visas. We stayed at René’s cousin’s house where we enjoyed close to a week of Argentine experience. This included a few days at the beach and local pool, meeting René’s cousins, meeting missionaries from the States that are working with local indigenous tribes and staying out every night until 3 like, from what it seemed, the rest of the city does.

I returned from this vacation feeling refreshed and eager to pick up on the English classes. As of right now I’m responsible for teaching 4 classes, 3 in my congregation and 1 at a sister church 10 minutes down the road. The mainly consist of first time beginners with a very limited knowledge of English but I also have the privilege of teaching an ‘Adolescente’ class with kids 12-14 years old and an advanced class with those who have already have conversation skills. For the most part classes are flowing pretty smoothly for me. There are always the few obstacles that reveal themselves now and then; my lack of teaching experience and training, the inconsistent nature of Paraguayan culture and clear direction or goals for the classes. But with these obstacles come student’s patience, straightforward class coordinators, advice and support from teachers, hostfamily and leaders, and, the sometimes unnoticed, sustentation by God’s strength.

Plenty of Movimiento

Another word I’ve warmed up to in the Spanish language is movimiento. To us English speakers it looks very much like the word ‘movement’ and sometimes it can be translated so. The first time I heard it, however, it was used by my middle ‘sister’ Diana when she was describing what she missed when she lived in Ciudad Del Este, a large commercial city on the border between Paraguay and Brazil. Her answered included a brief description with the emphasis on the movimeinto or the constant motion, activity, hustle and bustle of the city.

I recount this memory to try to let you in on what life is like in the Molinas' household. If I was describing it to a friend I would probably say it is ‘crazy busy’ to my mom ‘absolutely nuts’ and to a Spanish speaker ‘demasiado movimiento’. Acting as sort of a central hub being so close to the church there is never a lack of social interaction. There are the daily drop bys of the local young adults, weekly visits from a Swiss family (unfortunately they are not named Robinson) who live about an hour outside of town and stop ins at any moment from family, friends, church members, neighbors, clients of Secundino’s work and any other random visitor that feels free to stop by. This has only been compounded the last few weeks by a surprising amount of birthday parties, family anniversaries and Christmas celebrations.

Christmas in Paraguay was definitely a different scene. First of all it was hot and the only white Christmas you are ever going to get is in your dreams. Festivities started the Saturday before the big day where there was a ‘theater’ night in the church where every age group prepared something to share including a couple of choral songs from the adults, the always popular dressed up 2-5 year olds doing hand motions to a song, a skit from the preteens and another skit from the young adults starring yours truly. I still got some bugs to work out with my Spanish because apparently when you want to say, ‘Um… Can I just watch first to see what the play is going to be like’ it really means ‘Yea! I’ll be in it just tell me what to do!’ The following day instead of a Sunday morning service there was an all church Christmas dinner which involved excellent food, Karaoke, a table center piece competition and a few minor language slip ups from the foreigners that produced some stifled laughter.

The family spent Christmas Eve with relatives from both Secundino and María’s side. The morning of the 24^th was used to set up decorations, cook and prep the house for the festivities. Secundino’s brother’s family came around 3 in the afternoon where we pretty much just hung out until about 10 at night where we had a huge candlelit dinner outside, fireworks at midnight, presents opening and finally a sparkling cider toast. We all slept in the 25^th to recover from the long night and continued to enjoy, according to my host mother, the only day in the year where we don’t have to do anything!

I remember when I was just a little criatura...

That has to be my favorite word used in Paraguay, criatura. Literally it means ¨creature¨ but here they use it in reference to little kids and babies like Lucas, the son of a church couple who had his first birthday last week or my baby ¨cousin¨ who has monster cheeks they call ¨cachetes¨.

Can you remember when you where just a little criatura? Pretty carefree wasn’t it? I can still vividly recall neighborhood water balloon fights, craving driven candy hunts, secret club formations and competitions on who could run/ride/lift/jump faster/more/higher. I don’t think I’ve grown out of those last two and depending on who you ask some might say I haven’t grown out of any. But the point is life was free of stress. The number one thing on your mind was either how awesome it would be if the Ninja Turtles and G.I. Joes joined forces or where the heck did mom hide the soda this time.

This is a pretty accurate analogy of my life in Paraguay. Not that I sit around all day thinking of all the materials I need to build a super-top-secret-underground-tunnel-fort (those metal tube slides are impossible to find here) it’s just that I’m enjoying what I’m doing here. As of yet I teach about 4 different English classes every week which adds up to about 12 hours of in class time which I’ve come to enjoy tremendously. The majority of my out of class time I spend prepping and making lesson plans.

Beyond teaching I’m becoming more involved with the family by helping out with dishes and cooking, accompanying them on town errands and giving up my room for overnight guests. Church life has also become a solid part of my life in Paraguay. Every Saturday night we have a young adults service followed by a huge hangout afterwards where we play fútbol and vole. Sundays are just an extension of Saturday with Sunday morning culto (service) at 9, a relaxing afternoon and more hanging out and sport playing later that night. The support I'm recieving from the family, young adults and church is outstanding and I really can't imagine what Paraguay would be like without them.

Paraguayan Extremes: City hearts to starlit farms

Much has happened since the last time I blogged. One of the most exciting and perhaps refreshing excursions was a trip to the countryside (called ´el campo´) to visit my host mother’s father. He lives on a farm a good three and half hour bus ride away from my home. From the outset we were received with a warm welcome and a ox powered cart ride from the bus stop thanks to Marías brother. Very shortly after our arrival to the house we were given an afternoon tour of the farm layout. The house where Marías dad lives serves as a sort of central hub to the surrounding houses belonging to his children that decided to stay in the area (María has 13 brothers and sisters). On one side of the house there are various sorts of fields that grow crops like sugarcane. On other sides there are all sorts of animal pens, small gardens and orchard type setups and in front of the house runs a long, rough dirt road. The rest of the day was spent hanging out under shade trees talking with the family, drinking terere and enjoying the surprisingly comfortable wooden hammock. That night we had a grandiose dinner with at least 15 people under the open campo sky followed by speedy motorcycle trips to neighbors’ houses where we would spending the night.

The open air atmosphere of the campo was very quickly forgotten after about 20 members from the church loaded up in a decently sized rented bus at 3:00 in the morning that following weekend for a trip to Ciudad del Este. The trip itself took about 5 hours but to me and Scott it felt like no more than 10 minutes since we slept the entire way. We arrived first to Itaipu, one of the largest damns in the world where we were able to see massive amounts of water being spilled into the river from overflow releases and a general tour of the damn’s premises. This was followed up by a venture into the heart of Ciudad del Esteto eat and shop that ended in me bustling around 3 multi-storied buildings with my host parents looking for a pair of headphones with a microphone to use on Skype. The rest of our trip was spent relaxing in the hotel and heading to services of sister churches in the area that I later came to find out were started by my host parents in their younger years. The trip ended on a bit of a sad note since we had to leave Dorothea behind because this was her placement city.

Dorothea was only the first. The day following our return to Asunción the rest of the group dispersed; Craig, Krista and Scott headed about 45 minutes away in San Lorenzo and Becca an hour away in Villa Hayes leaving me in the same house were we all started. With the change of location also comes the change of schedule. We’ve all started to teach our English classes. My first week was a little strange because I’m not fully familiar to the social workings of this culture so I had some problems setting a class schedule but after a few days of quick placement tests and chats concerning students free time, I’ve set a time for my first class which starts tonight at 6:30. It’s really exciting to finally get started and dealt responsibility.

Rock Shelters and Rickety Bridges

You know that feeling when you are suspended over a decently large stream by a bridge that resembles some sort of backyard construction project you tried to build without dad’s help? Me either, until this last weekend when our group accompanied the young adults from the local church on a trip to a country town a few hours away called Eusebio Ayala. Besides trying out our luck on how many people the bridge would hold until it collapsed, we also took several stops along the way to eat, explore the countryside including some intruding shallow, cave-like rock formations, and play soccer and volleyball.

This seems to be a heavy focus right now; getting to know the country, the people, and the churches were we will be spending the next 9 months. We have weekly trips to significant places around Asuncion inlcuding La Casa de Independcia, a monumental hill that has a specific title that I have forgotten and many of the surrounding churches were we will be working. Besides this we have also been getting to know the people we will be living and working with, so much so I find it very difficult to remember more than half their names. At least twice a week we are invited over to peoples´ houses where we will have a meal, drink terere, or just hang out. Since the location we are staying at right now is going to be the same location where I will be staying the rest of the year, I’m able to start building relationships with the church and neighborhood. For the most part I’m highly involved with the young adults group in the church where my host father preaches. I’m invited to just about every event that they happen to be doing and feel a continually warm welcome from all of them.

While familiarizing ourselves with Paraguay, we’ve also been involved in an interesting dichotomy of learning Spanish and learning how to teach English. Besides the mere immersion of learning of the language we have also been having 3 or 4 Spanish lessons a week taught by the oldest daughter Laura in the house we were are staying. Learning how to teach English has come at the expense of taking taxing bus rides to a Seminary downtown where we have been learning under two college language professors on teaching techniques and have each had at least 2 practice sessions with local Paraguayans. Both of these have proved to be amazingly helpful.

In the midst of all these happenings, I’ve managed to get sick twice; once during the first week and once more in the second week. I’m not exactly sure what caused the sickness but Krista thinks it could be related to my unconscious habit of touching every public object including hand rails, light posts and anything else within my reach. Whatever the cause, each sickness took me out of routine for at least a day. However, Maria, my host mother, who is a nurse and quiet possibly could have helped written a book on natural remedies, has nursed me back to 100% both times.

If you’ve read this far on the blog you’re a real trooper and I thank for you for you’re interest in me and my journey! I would encourage you to write a comment to let me know who is reading this and what you think of it and also because they are amazingly uplifting! Thanks!!!

Reciepe for 10 months in Paraguay

Well the dawn has broken and were in Paraguay! After so much anticipation it’s good to finally be here.

Our travel here was an adventure in itself. We left the airport in Chicago around 2:30 in the afternoon last Tuesday to Miami. The flight was a bit long but were we so excited it didn’t matter much to us. We had about an 5 hour layover which was nice and relaxing and even informational since we were able to watch the 2^nd presidential debate on a conveniently central tv by our gate entrance. However, Miami was also a bit sobering because it was the last place our cell phones were going to work so we were all making frantic last minute phone calls. Soon we were all aboard our plane to Lima, Peru (it was about 1 o’clock in the morning) and we are facing the longest flight of the trip. We settled in, took off and in less than an hour were served breakfast, which was a little strange for everybody becuase it was 2 am. This flight was also our introduction to our next 10 months in Latin America since everything announced, presented, read or asked was in both Spanish and English. A side goal of mine was to fool the flight attendants into thinking I was a Latin-American. Didn’t work.

Our flight landed and we stumbled out tired and disoriented awaiting our next flight to Santiago, Chile. We didn’t have to wait too long until we were flying over the Andes mountains on the way to our final destination of Asuncion, Paraguay. The flight landed followed by the shortest customs wait I’d ever been in (I’ve only been in two) after the longest trip I’d ever taken (30 hours from the time we left) and we were immediately greeted by a whirlwind of hosts. There was hugging and kissing (it´s a custom here...) and before we knew our team was seperated into 3 cars which consequently met at the same house just 10 minutes later.

The house was that of Maria Molinas, who happens to be my host mother for the next 10 months. She is an excellent, fun loving women who is married to the pastor of the local Mennonite Church located just down the street. Her family has proven to be a rock in our first month of language orientation and have adopted us, especially me, as their new hijos. Her husband’s name is Secundino and together they have 3 daughters, all of which are named Laura which has lead to an interesting phenomenon of me being renamed as Lauro Tyler Molinas. In effect, I’m the fourth Laura.

Our setup looks like this; Dorothea and Rebecca are staying in the house which will probably soon be my room when our group dissipates. Craig and Krista and staying with member of the church a quick stroll down the street and Scott and I are bunking together in a room off the side of the church that I believe is usually used as a Sunday school classroom considering the brightly colored pawprints and pictures of babies dressed in animal costumes on the wall.

A typical day is pretty relaxed. Some breakfast in the morning followed by some sort of Spanish immersion, lunch with a restful siesta right behind it, then dinner and some games to complete the day. We’ve been learning a little about the culture and actually had a trip to downtown Asuncion the other day where we hung out and were able to see a lot of government buildings, fairs, and a museum. We’ve also gone to a couple church services already were we attempted to figure out what was going on amidst us being brought to the front to introduce ourselves and trying to sing the tunes of new songs.

All in all, I can say it’s been a very comforting and warm welcome which has helped me transition smoothly, however there are so many new things to discover. It reminds of being a kid who has gone to his friend’s house for the afternoon and is exploring his backyard for the very first time. There are so many new things to discover but everything resembles a basic pattern of familiar. The people are different in the language they speak but something similar lies beneath. We eat new food but the table is still full of laughter. We wake up in a different bed but fall asleep like we’ve always have. It seems as though Paraguay, if made a recipe, would be a lot of new with a hint of familiar.